Skip to main content

Eclipse LocationTech Working Group charter

Goals and Vision

Location based analysis was once the exclusive domain of specialists and a peripheral activity for many organizations. As technology advanced, its use shifted by adding spatial capabilities to mainstream consumer technology and enterprise IT.

Trends such as the decreased cost and increased computing power of devices, often portable, have significantly increased the rate of data generation and expectations that the data be easily consumable anywhere at any time. Expectations have shifted from asynchronous processing of data to real time.

These represent new demands for technology. The LocationTech Industry Working Group aims at answering these needs by:

  • Providing a set of industry-friendly open source tools, frameworks, and components
  • Providing collaborative means to make open innovation easier
  • Fostering exchanges between academics, industrial partners, and community
  • Operating software repositories, build chains, test facilities, etc.
  • Managing the quality and maturity of tools and components from early research prototypes through obsolescence
  • Ensuring open innovation through the sharing of the research, development and maintenance efforts as far as possible
  • Organizing sustainable commercial services and ecosystems around those components

Recognizing projects maturity and company know-how and commitment through a branding process available only to member organizations.

Core domains

This group focuses on software, data formats, data exchange protocols, frameworks, techniques, and tools to fulfil its goal and vision, including:

  • Desktop, Mobile, and Web Mapping
  • Model driven design
  • Data capture, exchange, and processing

Aggregating and relating data from diverse sources

Other domain specific techniques and tools may be proposed for acceptance by the Steering Committee.

Component Management

A number of good technologies answering some of our needs already exist in open source. The group does not intend to re-develop existing components. Specific issues like durability, interoperability, and intellectual property stewardship are not always taken into account and the group will strive to influence these areas and re-implement only as a last resort. There are two kinds of projects are therefore supported in this group:

Hosted Projects
The technical artefacts are hosted in our facilities.
External Projects
The technical artefacts are hosted elsewhere.

Governance and Precedence

Applicable Documents

All Members must be parties to the Eclipse Membership agreement, including the requirement set forth in Section 2.2 to follow the Bylaws and then-current policies of the Eclipse Foundation. In the event of any conflict between the terms set forth in this Working Group's Charter and the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, Membership Agreement, Eclipse Development Process, Eclipse Industry Working Group Process, or any policies of the Eclipse Foundation, the terms of the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, Membership Agreement, process, or policy shall take precedence.

IP Management

The Intellectual Property Policy of the Eclipse Foundation will apply to all activities in this group. The group will follow the Eclipse Foundation's IP due diligence process in order to provide clean open source software released under licenses approved by the group and the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors. Approved licenses for this group include EPL, MIT, and BSD. This list may be amended from time to time by the group and the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors. The EPL license is the recommended license for projects in this group.

Development Process

The Eclipse Foundation Development Process will apply to all open source projects hosted by this group. In particular, the project lifecycle model and review process will be followed by the open source projects hosted by this group.

Membership

An entity must be at least a Solutions Member of the Eclipse Foundation, have executed the IWG Participation Agreement, and adhere to the requirements set forth in this Charter to participate. The Eclipse Solution Member fees appear in the tables below for convenience only: they are decided as described in the Eclipse bylaws and detailed in the Eclipse membership agreement.

Classes of membership

Strategic members

Strategic Members are organizations that view location technology as strategic to their organization and are investing resources to sustain and shape the activities of this group.

LocationTech Strategic Member Fees

Revenue

Eclipse SolutionMembership

LocationTech StrategicMembership

Total

>$250 million

$20,000

$30,000

$50,000

>$100 million <= $250 million

$15,000

$25,000

$40,000

>$50 million <= $100 million

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

>$10 million <= $50 million

$7,500

$15,000

$22,500

<$10 million

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

Participant members

Participant Members are organizations that view location technology as an important part of their organization's activities. These organizations want to participate in the development of the location technology ecosystem.

LocationTech Participant Member Fees

Revenue

Eclipse SolutionMembership

LocationTech ParticipantMembership

Total

>$250 million

$20,000

$10,000

$30,000

>$100 million <= $250 million

$15,000

$7,500

$22,500

>$50 million <= $100 million

$10,000

$3,500

$13,500

>$10 million <= $50 million

$7,500

$2,250

$9,750

<$10 million

$5,000

$1,000

$6,000

<$1 million & < 10 employees

$1,500

$500

$2,000

Guests

Guests are organizations who have been invited for one year by the Steering Committee to participate in some aspects of the activities of the group. Typical guests includes R&D partners, academic entities and potential future full fledged members who want to have an inner look before deciding of their strategy. Even if guests can be invited to some meetings, they have no right to vote. Invitations may be renewed by the Steering Committee. Guests will be required to sign a participation agreement.

Committers

Committer Members are individuals who through a process of meritocracy defined by the Eclipse Development Process are able to contribute and commit code to software projects. Committers may be members by virtue of working for a member organization, or may choose to complete the membership process independently if they are not. For further explanation and details, see the Eclipse Committer Membership page.

Membership Summary

Strategic Member

Participant Member

Committer

Guest

Member of the Steering Committee

X

Elected

Elected

Invited

Member of the Architecture Committee

X

Elected

Elected

Invited

Member of the Marketing Committee

X

Elected

Elected

Invited

Access to the open collaboration infrastructure

X

X

X

X

IP Due diligence

X

X

X

X

Write Access to open source code repositories

-

-

X

-

Access to the LTS Build Infrastructure

X

-

-

-

Access to LTS binary releases

X

-

-

-

Services are detailed in section Services

All matters related to Membership in the Eclipse Foundation and this group will be governed by the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, Membership Agreement and Eclipse Industry Working Group Process. These matters include, without limitation delinquency, payment of dues, termination, resignation, reinstatement, assignment, and the distribution of assets upon dissolution.

Members who resign, or otherwise terminate their membership in the group lose their rights to access and use any private assets and data of the group after the date of the termination.

The private data of terminated Members, such test cases or custom build chains shall be archived and the archive sent back to their copyright holders under an open source license specified by the Steering Committee. The private data of Members terminated can be removed from storages forty five (45) days after the Termination. Nevertheless, the Members terminated can request to the Steering Committee to store for two (2) years their archived private data. This request shall be sent within thirty (30) days after the Termination and can be accepted or not, on the sole discretion of the Steering Committee.

The survival of any licenses to group private assets acquired by a Member during the period of Membership shall be as specified in the license.

Services

Open source collaboration infrastructure

This group leverages open source collaboration infrastructure managed by the Eclipse Foundation. As such, source code repositories, Bugzilla, wikis, forums, project mailing lists, and other services provided as the Open Source collaboration infrastructure are publicly visible. Committers have write access to this infrastructure, and as such have the rights and obligations as set forth in the Eclipse Development Process, and the various Eclipse Committer Agreements. The catalog of components hosted by this group is part of this collaboration infrastructure.

Hosting custom builds on the group's infrastructure

The capability of using the group's test and build infrastructure in order to create member-specific bundles exists. These bundles can be private to the member who defines and uses them.

IP due diligence

IP due diligence is necessary to check that the committers have the right to open-source the code they contribute.

It is also necessary to check that the different integrated components have compatible licenses. We allow not only EPL licensed components, but also MIT & BSD licensed components.

Governance

This group is designed as:

  • a member driven organization,
  • a means to foster a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem of components and service providers,
  • a means to organize the community of each project or component so that users and developers define the roadmap collaboratively.

In order to implement these principles, the following governance bodies have been defined (each a "Body"):

  • The Steering Committee
  • The General Assembly
  • The Architecture Committee
  • The Marketing Committee
  • Project Management Committees

Common Dispositions

The dispositions below apply to all governance bodies for this group, unless otherwise specified. For all matters related to membership action, including without limitation: meetings, quorum, voting, electronic voting action without meeting, vacancy, resignation or removal, the terms set forth in Section 6 of the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws apply.

Good Standing

A representative shall be deemed to be in Good Standing, and thus eligible to vote on issues coming before the Body he participates to, if the representative has attended (in person or telephonically) a minimum of three (3) of the last four (4) Body meetings (if there have been at least four meetings). Appointed representatives on the Body may be replaced by the Member organization they are representing at any time by providing written notice to the Steering Committee. In the event a Body member is unavailable to attend or participate in a meeting of the Body, he or she may send a representative and may vote by proxy, which shall be included in determining whether the representative is in Good Standing. As per the Eclipse Foundation Bylaws, a representative shall be immediately removed from the Body upon the termination of the membership of such representative’s Member organization.

Voting

Super Majority

For actions (i) requesting that the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors approve an additional distribution license for projects; (ii) amending the terms of the group's Participation agreement; (iii) approving or changing the name of the group; (iv) approving changes to annual Member contribution requirements; any such actions must be approved by no less than two-thirds (2/3) of the representatives in Good Standing represented at a Steering Committee meeting at which a quorum is present.

Term and Dates of elections

This section only applies to the Steering Committee, Architecture Committee, and the Marketing Committee.

All representatives shall hold office until their respective successors are appointed or elected, as applicable. There shall be no prohibition on re-election or re-designation of any representative following the completion of that representative’s term of office.

Strategic Members

Strategic Members Representatives shall serve in such capacity on committees until the earlier of their removal by their respective appointing Member organization or as otherwise provided for in this Charter.

Elected representatives

Elected representatives shall each serve one-year terms and shall be elected to serve from April 1 to March 31 of each calendar year, or until their respective successors are elected and qualified, or as otherwise provided for in this Charter. Procedures governing elections of Representatives may be established pursuant to resolutions of the Steering Committee provided that such resolutions are not inconsistent with any provision of this Charter.

Meetings Management

Place of meetings

All meetings may be held at any place that has been designated from time-to-time by resolution of the corresponding Body. All meetings may be held remotely using phone calls, video calls or any other mean as designated from time-to-time by resolution of the corresponding Body.

Regular meetings

No Body meeting will be deemed to have been validly held unless a notice of same has been provided to each of the representative in Good Standing at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to such meeting, which notice will identify all potential actions to be undertaken by the Body at the Body meeting. No representative will be intentionally excluded from Body meetings and all representatives shall receive notice of the meeting as specified above; however, Body meetings need not be delayed or rescheduled merely because one or more of the representatives cannot attend or participate so long as at least a quorum of the Body is represented at the Body meeting. Electronic voting shall be permitted in conjunction with any and all meetings of the Body the subject matter of which requires a vote of the Body to be delayed until each such representative in attendance thereat has conferred with his or her respective Member organization as set forth in Section Voting above.

Actions

The Body may undertake an action only if it was identified in a Body Meeting notice or otherwise identified in a notice of special meeting.

Invitations

The Body may invite any member to any of its meetings. These invited attendees have no right of vote.

Steering Committee

Powers and Duties

Steering committee members are required to:

  • Define the strategy of the group
  • Define the global roadmap
  • Discuss and amend the charter and the participation agreement
  • Define the budget and fees each year
  • Invite guest members

Composition

  • Each strategic member of the group has a seat on the Steering Committee.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Participant Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Participant Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Participant Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Committer Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Comitter Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Committer Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • The Steering Committee elects among its members a chair who will represent the IWG. They will serve from April 1 to March 31 of each calendar year, or until their respective successors are elected and qualified, or as otherwise provided for in this Charter.

Meeting Management

The Steering Committee meets at least twice a year.

General Assembly

Powers and Duties

  • Approve changing the name of the group.

Composition

Each Strategic and Participant Member of the IWG has a seat on the General Assembly.

Meeting Management

The General Assembly meets at least once a year.

Architecture Committee

Powers and Duties

Architecture Committee members are required to:

  • Ensure the technical consistency of projects
  • Ensure that projects achieve objectives
  • Recommend technologies
  • Establish technical guidelines
  • The Architecture Committee validates new project proposals

Composition

  • Each strategic member of the group has a seat on the Committee.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Participant Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Participant Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Participant Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Committer Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Comitter Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Committer Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • The Committee elects a chair who reports to the Steering Committee. This chair is elected among the members of the Committee. They will serves from April 1 to March 31 of each calendar year, or until their successor is elected and qualified, or as otherwise provided for in this Charter.

Meeting Management

The Architecture committee meets at least twice a year.

The Marketing Committee

Powers and Duties

The Marketing Committee members are required to:

  • Ensure the consistency of logo usage and other marketing materials
  • Define & Follow maketing and communication activities
  • Ensure consistency of annual conferences
  • Ensure consistency of regional conferences

Composition

  • Each strategic member of the group has a seat on the Committee.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Participant Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Participant Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Participant Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • At least one seat is allocated to Committer Members. An additional seat on the Committee shall be allocated to the Comitter Members for every additional five (5) seats beyond one (1) allocated to Strategic Members. Committer Member seats are allocated following the Eclipse "Single Transferable Vote", as defined in the Eclipse Bylaws.
  • The Committee elects a chair who reports to the Steering Committee. This chair is elected among the members of the Committee. They will serves from April 1 to March 31 of each calendar year, or until their successor is elected and qualified, or as otherwise provided for in this Charter.

Meeting Management

Marketing Committee meets at least twice a year.

Project Management Committees

Any Project Management Committee (PMC) established by the group and the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors shall be governed by the Eclipse Development Process.

Back to the top